The objective of the National Crime Surveys is to provide
data on the level of crime victimization in the United States and to
collect information on the characteristics of crime incidents and
victims. Each respondent was asked a series of screen questions to
determine if he or she was victimized during the six-month period
preceding the first day of the month of the interview. Screen
questions cover the following types of crimes, including attempts:
rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle
theft. The data include ty... (more info)

The objective of the National Crime Surveys is to provide
data on the level of crime victimization in the United States and to
collect information on the characteristics of crime incidents and
victims. Each respondent was asked a series of screen questions to
determine if he or she was victimized during the six-month period
preceding the first day of the month of the interview. Screen
questions cover the following types of crimes, including attempts:
rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle
theft. The data include type of crime, description of the offender,
severity of the crime, injuries or losses, and demographic information
on household members such as age, sex, race, education, employment,
median family income, marital status, and military history.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Dataset(s)

WARNING: Because this study has many datasets, the download all files option has been suppressed, and you will need to download one dataset at a time.

WARNING: This study is over 150MB in size and may take several minutes to download on a typical internet connection.

Study Description

Citation

U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Crime Surveys: National Sample, 1986-1992 [Near-Term Data]. Conducted by U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. ICPSR08864-v7. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 2000-09-11. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08864.v7

(1) The National Crime Surveys data are organized by
year, with six collection quarters comprising an annual file: the
four quarters of the current year plus the first two quarters of the
following year. (2) Parts 1-8 of this collection were the original
collection quarter files from the Census Bureau, which are not
available for public release. (3) The data for the Full Files and the
Longitudinal File (Part 40) are hierarchically structured with four
levels: Address or Household ID, Household, Person, and Incident. The
Address or Household ID and Household levels contain 29,572 to
232,904 records per file. The Address or Household ID level has 5 to
41 variables and a logical record length of 54 to 77 per file. The
Household level consists of 91 to 94 variables with a logical record
length of 165 to 189 per file. The Person level has 51,762 to 392,547
records, 50 to 55 variables, and a logical record length of 104 to
124 per file. The Incident level contains 4,489 to 35,054 records and
499 to 500 variables, with a logical record length of 609 to 639 per
file. Only incidents within the calendar year have been included in
the person-level extract files, up to a maximum of four incidents per
person. A 10-percent random sample of all persons without incidents
also has been included. Persons without incidents also have been
bounded by calendar year. Each case or person in the person-level
files contains all Household, Person, and Incident variables from the
hierarchical Full Files, including Variables 2001-2091, 3001-3050,
and 4001-4499. Variables 5001-5499, 6001-6499, and 7001-7499
represent the second, third, and fourth incidents. For respondents
with fewer than four incidents, the Incident record variables contain
missing data codes. The Incident files include information on victims
rather than nonvictims. There are three types of Incident files:
single-year, concatenated annual, and rape subset. In all three
types, an Incident record has been extracted from one of the
hierarchical Full Files. These Incident records contain a victim's
Household and Person information. Users working with the Person or
Incident files should refer to the codebook documenting the
hierarchical Full Files for methodological information and
appropriate code values. (4) SAS data definition statements are
available for Parts 15, 31, 33-38, and 42-49. SPSS data definition
statements are provided for Parts 15, 30-38, and 42-49. (5) The
Codebook for All Parts Except Part 40, including the data collection
instrument for all parts, is available in ASCII text format. The
Codebook for Part 40, with a copy of the data collection instrument
for all parts, is provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF)
file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Methodology

Sample:
Stratified multistage cluster sample.

Data Source:

personal and telephone interviews

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1990-05-01

Version History:

2000-09-11 The codebook for Part 40, 1986-1990 Longitudinal
File, is now available as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, and a
copy of the data collection instrument for all parts has been added to
it.